Which of the following statements is correct for the study of demography as a field?
A. It is concerned with the structure and composition of the population.
B. It maps the trends and patterns of births, deaths and migration.
C. Formal and social demography are two varieties of demographic studies.
D. Sociology as a discipline owes its origin to demographic studies.
Choose the correct answer from the options given below:
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 2
The correct answer is Option (2) → A, B, C and D
A. It is concerned with the structure and composition of the population. Correct. Demography is the systematic study of population. One of the things it studies is the structure and composition of the population, such as the relative proportions of women, men and different age groups.
B. It maps the trends and patterns of births, deaths and migration. Correct. Demography studies the trends and processes of population, including changes in its size and the patterns of births, deaths and migration.
C. Formal and social demography are two varieties of demographic studies. Correct. There are different varieties of demography. Formal demography is a largely quantitative field, and social demography focuses on the social, economic or political aspects of populations.
D. Sociology as a discipline owes its origin to demographic studies. Correct. ‘Owes its origin’ here means that sociology arose with the help of demography. Demography is of special importance to sociology, since the emergence of sociology and its successful establishment as an academic discipline owed a lot to demography. The social statistics collected by the new nation-states gave strong evidence that social phenomena exist, and this supported the new discipline.
Note: NTA dropped this question in its Final Answer Key. The original NTA paper printed Option (2) as ‘A, B and C only’. As per NCERT (2025-26), all four statements are correct, statement D included, but none of the printed options gave all four, so the question as printed had no correct option. To give the question one correct answer, Option (2) has been changed to ‘A, B, C and D’.
NCERT (2025-26): “Demography is the systematic study of population. The term is of Greek origin and is composed of the two words, demos (people) and graphein (describe), implying the description of people. Demography studies the trends and processes associated with population including – changes in population size; patterns of births, deaths, and migration; and the structure and composition of the population, such as the relative proportions of women, men and different age groups. There are different varieties of demography, including formal demography which is a largely quantitative field, and social demography which focuses on the social, economic or political aspects of populations. All demographic studies are based on processes of counting or enumeration – such as the census or the survey – which involve the systematic collection of data on the people residing within a specified territory. Demography is a field that is of special importance to sociology – in fact, the emergence of sociology and its successful establishment as an academic discipline owed a lot to demography.…” |